scholarly journals Variability and its limits in bilingual word recognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-329
Author(s):  
Harald Clahsen ◽  
Anna Jessen
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Response Speed ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Mediated Effects ◽  
Participant Group ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Morphological Parsing

Abstract This study examines the processing of morphologically complex words focusing on how morphological (in addition to orthographic and semantic) factors affect bilingual word recognition. We report findings from a large experimental study with groups of bilingual (Turkish/German) speakers using the visual masked-priming technique. We found morphologically mediated effects on the response speed and the inter-individual variability within the bilingual participant group. We conclude that the grammar (qua morphological parsing) not only enhances speed of processing in bilingual language processing but also yields more uniform performance and thereby constrains variability within a group of otherwise heterogeneous individuals.

The use of a rapid priming technique I: Adult language processing

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Chris Davis ◽  
Anne Castles
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Psycholinguistic Research ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Priming Technique

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the background and use of the masked priming procedure in adult psycholinguistic research. Using this technique, we address the issue of how precise the letter and word processing systems of adults is for rapidly displayed stimuli. Data is reviewed that suggests that, for skilled readers, the letter and word recognition system is sensitively tuned to the discrimination demands imposed on it by the properties of the written language. That is, the recognition system is able to be discriminative where precision is required, but is also able to consider and use incomplete information when this is predictive.

Neural Correlates of Morphological Decomposition during Visual Word Recognition

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 1983-1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian T. Gold ◽  
Kathleen Rastle
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Complex Words

Considerable behavioral research has demonstrated that the visual word recognition system is sensitive to morphological structure. It has typically been assumed that analysis of morphologically complex words occurs only when the meaning of these words can be derived from the meanings of their constituents (e.g., hunter = hunt + er). However, results from recent behavioral research using the masked priming technique have demonstrated that morphological analysis can occur at an earlier orthographic level, in cases in which the meanings of complex words cannot be derived from their constituents (e.g., corner = corn + er). Here, we combine the logic of behavioral masked priming with the neurophysiological phenomenon of functional magnetic resonance imaging priming suppression to look for evidence of nonsemantic morphological priming at the neural level. Both behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging results indicated priming effects associated with the mere appearance of morphological structure (corner—CORN). In addition, these effects were distinguishable from lexical-semantic effects (bucket—PAIL) and orthographic effects (brothel—BROTH). Three left-lateralized occipito-temporal regions showed sensitivity to early morphological components of visual word recognition. Two of these regions also showed orthographic priming (∼BA 37, peak: −48 −60 −17; ∼BA 19, peak: −40 −77 −1), whereas one was sensitive only to morphological similarity between primes and targets (∼BA 19, peak: ∼37 ∼67 ∼7). These findings provide a neurobiological basis for a purely structural morphemic segmentation mechanism operating at early stages of visual word recognition.

scholarly journals Real-time Functional Architecture of Visual Word Recognition

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Whiting ◽  
Yury Shtyrov ◽  
William Marslen-Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Functional Architecture ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Complex Words

Despite a century of research into visual word recognition, basic questions remain unresolved about the functional architecture of the process that maps visual inputs from orthographic analysis onto lexical form and meaning and about the units of analysis in terms of which these processes are conducted. Here we use magnetoencephalography, supported by a masked priming behavioral study, to address these questions using contrasting sets of simple (walk), complex (swimmer), and pseudo-complex (corner) forms. Early analyses of orthographic structure, detectable in bilateral posterior temporal regions within a 150–230 msec time frame, are shown to segment the visual input into linguistic substrings (words and morphemes) that trigger lexical access in left middle temporal locations from 300 msec. These are primarily feedforward processes and are not initially constrained by lexical-level variables. Lexical constraints become significant from 390 msec, in both simple and complex words, with increased processing of pseudowords and pseudo-complex forms. These results, consistent with morpho-orthographic models based on masked priming data, map out the real-time functional architecture of visual word recognition, establishing basic feedforward processing relationships between orthographic form, morphological structure, and lexical meaning.

Masked morphological priming of compound constituents

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Fiorentino ◽  
Ella Fund-Reznicek
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Regular Form ◽  
Morphological Priming ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Open Class ◽  
New Evidence

Recent masked priming studies suggest that complex words are rapidly segmented into potential morphological constituents during initial visual word recognition. Much of this evidence involves affixation or other formally regular operations, leaving open the question of whether these effects rely heavily on the identification of a closed-class affix or other formal regularity. In two masked priming experiments with English transparent and opaque bimorphemic compound primes consisting solely of open-class morphemes, we find significant constituent priming, but no significant priming for purely orthographic overlap. We conclude that masked morphological priming generalizes across word-formation types to include compounds with no affix or other regular form. These results provide new evidence for across-the-board morphological-level segmentation during visual word recognition and for morpheme-based compound processing.

Accessing Morphosyntax in L1 and L2 Word Recognition

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Bosch ◽  
Harald Clahsen
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Visual Priming ◽  
And Gender ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Case Number ◽  
L2 Word Recognition

In fusional languages, inflectional affixes may encode multiple morphosyntactic features such as case, number, and gender. To determine how these features are accessed during both native (L1) and non-native (L2) word recognition, the present study compares the results from a masked visual priming experiment testing inflected adjectives of German to those of a previous overt (cross-modal) priming experiment on the same phenomenon. While for the L1 group both experiments produced converging results, a group of highly-proficient Russian L2 learners of German showed native-like modulations of repetition priming effects under overt, but not under masked priming conditions. These results indicate that not only affixes but also their morphosyntactic features are accessible during initial form-based lexical access, albeit only for L1 and not for L2 processing. We argue that this contrast is in line with other findings suggesting that non-native language processing is less influenced by structural information than the L1.

Inflection and derivation in native and non-native language processing: Masked priming experiments on Turkish

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 776-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
BILAL KIRKICI ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
European Language ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
Complex Words

Much previous experimental research on morphological processing has focused on surface and meaning-level properties of morphologically complex words, without paying much attention to the morphological differences between inflectional and derivational processes. Realization-based theories of morphology, for example, assume specific morpholexical representations for derived words that distinguish them from the products of inflectional or paradigmatic processes. The present study reports results from a series of masked priming experiments investigating the processing of inflectional and derivational phenomena in native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers in a non-Indo-European language, Turkish. We specifically compared regular (Aorist) verb inflection with deadjectival nominalization, both of which are highly frequent, productive and transparent in Turkish. The experiments demonstrated different priming patterns for inflection and derivation, specifically within the L2 group. Implications of these findings are discussed both for accounts of L2 morphological processing and for the controversial linguistic distinction between inflection and derivation.

scholarly journals Morphological processing in heritage speakers: A masked priming study on the Turkish aorist

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Serkan Uygun ◽  
Harald Clahsen
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
General Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Complex Words

Abstract Previous research has shown that heritage speakers struggle with inflectional morphology. ‘Limitations of online resources’ for processing a non-dominant language has been claimed as one possible reason for these difficulties. To date, however, there is very little experimental evidence on real-time language processing in heritage speakers. Here we report results from a masked priming experiment with 97 bilingual (Turkish/German) heritage speakers and a control group of 40 non-heritage speakers of Turkish examining regular and irregular forms of the Turkish aorist. We found that, for the regular aorist, heritage speakers use the same morphological decomposition mechanism (‘affix stripping’) as control speakers, whereas for processing irregularly inflected forms they exhibited more variability (i.e., less homogeneous performance) than the control group. Heritage speakers also demonstrated semantic priming effects. At a more general level, these results indicate that heritage speakers draw on multiple sources of information for recognizing morphologically complex words.

Phonemic representations in morphological segmentation of written English words

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cintia S. Widmann ◽  
Robin K. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Morphological Segmentation ◽  
Orthographic Representations ◽  
Phonemic Representations ◽  
Complex Words

We addressed the issue of the kinds of representations involved in morphological segmentation during visual word recognition. Specifically, we asked whether morphological segmentation operates on phonemic representations. The results of two masked priming experiments indicated that words with appearance of morphological complex structure (ponder) primed their apparent embedded roots (POND) as much as actual morphologically complex words (dreamer) primed their actual embedded roots (DREAM). However, the effect was significantly reduced in naming and it became inhibitory in lexical decision for primes (caper) whose phonemic representations did not completely overlap with those of their potential roots (CAP) but whose orthographic representations did. This suggests that morphological segmentation is not restricted to orthographic representations, but that it also engages phonemic representations.

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